Hammers meet Carrington in final

Halifax Hammers and Carrington will clash in the Briggs Priestley Senior Cup final at Brighouse Town AFC next month after contrasting wins at the weekend.

Hammers powered past Ryburn Valley 5-1 at Savile Park while Halifax Sunday League leaders Carrington were made to work much harder for a 4-3 win over all sparring partners Waiters Arms.

Hammers were on the attack from the start against Ryburn and took the lead through Mohammed Ozair’s deflected shot after 13 minutes.

Good play on the left by Matty Waller and Lamin Gitteh then set up youngster Awais Khan to make it 2-0 from close range.

Valley, who play in a division below their visitors, tried to stem the flow with some last-ditch defending and good saves.

They were given hope five minutes before the break when James Dodds headed in from close range and Dodds had a chance to level matters but his effort went wide.

It was 1-3 soon after the break when Hammers left back Ikhlaq Ahmed broke up a Ryburn attack, ran forward and provided a delightful through ball for Waller to smartly chip the ‘keeper.

An Ahsan Farooq penalty and Lamin Gitteh shot into the top corner settled matters with half an hour left.

The fourth encounter of the season between Carrington and Waiters was as usual a hard fought and entertaining game.

Waiters took the lead on 20 minutes when David Chappell stole in behind the Carrington defence and finished well.

Carrington hit back soon after when Damian Randall’s effort was parried into the net by the otherwise impressive Ethan Daly.

Carrington continued to see more of the ball in the second half although Waiters were dangerous from set pieces and long throws from Ashton Richardson.

A well worked free-kick between Leon Hurles-Brook and Jordan Coduri set up Jay Carney to give Carrington the lead for the first time and when Carney added another moments later it seemed to be game over.